With increased demand for lower costs and improved customer service, banks continue to grow in size. Today's large national and international banks have many advantages compared to small banks. Perhaps the most obvious advantage to banking with a large national or international bank is the stability of the bank and, thereby, the safety of a customer's money and confidential information. Due to their size and the amount of capital that they manage, large banks can usually provide many different services to customers. Customer service at a large bank may also be better in many respects. For example, a customer of a large bank may be able to find an automated teller machine (ATM), bank branch, or other banking center within a few minutes of most locations in the country or world frequented by the customer. In this way, customers of large banks can often access their finances more easily from anywhere in the world and at any time of day compared to customers of small banks. Furthermore, transactions may be handled by a larger bank more quickly and with fewer errors than a smaller bank. Large banks also traditionally offer a greater variety of financial products and services to their customers.
One potential downside to some large banks is a movement away from the feeling of a local community bank. Furthermore, with the invention of ATMs and the expansion of banks into online banking (i.e. banking over the Internet), individual and business banking customers are increasingly less likely to go into a bank branch and interact with bank employees. Banking customers can transfer money between accounts, pay accounts payable, open individual retirement accounts (“IRAs”), open certificate of deposit (“CD”) accounts, purchase stocks, etc. online, through the customer's online banking accounts. Customers can even make deposits at ATMs or remote banking machines located at their places of work, or even using their cell phones. While these activities provide customers with more options and convenience, it has also significantly changed the customer experience of banking with a local community bank.
As a result of the new technology and trends towards larger banks, banks are less likely to be places within a community where individual customers and business customers interact with each other and the bank employees on a regular basis. Personal relationships are rarely forged today between a bank's individual customers, business customers, and/or employees, which is unfortunate because these relationships can be mutually beneficial to the each party as well as the local community as a whole. Furthermore, when banks do participate in local community events or charities they often are not widely recognized by their customers unless the customers are directly involved in the events or charities.
Therefore, there is a need to develop apparatuses and methods that help banks to provide its individual and business customers with a more local banking experience focused on the communities in which these customers live, work, and do business.